upgrade to Debian 13 Trixie – The Wandering Nerd

Pre-Upgrade System Preparation

elevate to root

Create System Backup

mkdir mkdir /mnt/athena_backups/"$HOSTNAME"_backups
tar -czf /mnt/athena_backups/"$HOSTNAME"_backups/etc-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc
dpkg --get-selections > /mnt/athena_backups/"$HOSTNAME"_backups/package-selections-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt

Ensure Debian 12 is fully updated before proceeding

apt update
apt upgrade -y
apt dist-upgrade -y
apt clean
apt autoremove -y

Verify system integrity before upgrade

apt --fix-broken install
dpkg --configure -a

Create safety copy of repository settings

cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bookworm-backup
cp -r /etc/apt/sources.list.d /etc/apt/sources.list.d.bookworm-backup

Update Main Sources List and Additional Repositories

sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' /etc/apt/sources.list
find /etc/apt/sources.list.d -name "*.list" -exec sed -i 's/bookworm/trixie/g' {} ;

This systematically updates all repository references from Bookworm to Trixie across all configuration files.

apt update

Third-party repositories may not immediately support Trixie. Consider temporarily disabling them by adding ‘#’ at the beginning of their lines in sources configuration files.

Minimal Upgrade First

apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs

Full Distribution Upgrade

apt full-upgrade

Confirm successful upgrade completion

cat /etc/debian_version
lsb_release -a
cat /etc/os-release

Clean Obsolete Packages

apt autoremove -y
apt autoclean

Update Package Cache

apt update
apt list --upgradable

System Reboot: Complete the upgrade process

systemctl reboot